Surgery For Stutes; Could Miss Season

According to Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer, a source tells him reliever Mike Stutes could miss the rest of the season as he’s scheduled to undergo shoulder surgery on Tuesday.

The procedure will be done to clean up “fraying” from the shoulder, according to Gelb’s report. This comes just days after another reliever, David Herndon, was lost for the season after Tommy John surgery. Jose Contreras was lost to the same injury earlier in the season.

The 25-year old Stutes had trouble with the shoulder late in spring training but decided to give it a go for the season. The results were terrible as he put together a 6.35 ERA before being shut down. Stutes went to Clearwater to rest and rebuild strength in the shoulder, but that plan did not go well. And now, his season is in jeopardy.

Par for the course. This season has been a complete mess, with injuries wrecking the Phillies plans from the get-go. Unbelievably, there are four teams that have lost more players to the DL than the Phillies: Boston (18), Washington (16), San Diego (15), and Tampa Bay (14).

Stutes’ major league career began with so much promise, but now looks to be derailed until 2013.

While I’m hopeful he’s able to recover and come back strong next season, shoulder injuries of any sort are much more dangerous than elbow injuries. The shoulder is much more complex a joint than the elbow. More careers have been derailed from shoulder injuries than from elbows.

Just generic “fraying” doesn’t sound awful, and hopefully he is able to come back 100%, I wouldn’t say it has much to do with him being young.

That is so true. Shoulders are so complex that even MRIs can’t always locate the difficulties, and many technicians don’t even get the images right.

I injured my shoulder several years ago. The MRI revealed nothing out of the ordinary, but I have trouble with moving my arm to this day, and many times, it still aches. I’ve known others who have had shoulder surgery, and their joints have never been the same.